FISHERY-POLLUTION INTERACTIONS - A MODELING APPROACH TO EXPLORE THE NATURE AND INCIDENCE OF ECONOMIC DAMAGES

This paper develops a simple bioeconomic model of fishery-pollution in teraction in order to examine the effects of toxic discharges on a hyp othetical commercial fishery. The consequences of acute and chronic po llution scenarios are considered, and the model is used to generate re sults in respect of fish stock biomass, profitability and catch. Econo mic damage to the natural resource is measured as the lost in situ val ue of the commercial harvest, and it is shown that the magnitude of th ese damages depends on the speed at which fishing effort responds to t he reduction on biological productivity that the pollution incidents c ause. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.